WIPO TAKES MADONNA’S SIDE
IN CYBERSQUATTING SUIT
Any Other Children Named Rocco
On Monday (10/16), a three-member panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered Web site developer Dan Parisi to transfer the Madonna.com site to the singer. Parisi originally registered the URL as a porn site.
The panel said Parisi had no trademark right to the name Madonna and failed to prove legitimate interest in the Internet domain name, which it said he registered in bad faith.
Madonna originally filed a complaint against Parisi with the U.N. arbitrators in July. She maintained the onetime porn site tarnished her name (hitsdailydouble, 8/21). WIPO noted that the singer had used her name and trademark Madonna professionally since 1979.
The WIPO said this was not the first cybersquatting case involving Parisi, who had registered domain names including wallstreetjournal.com.
The WIPO has received more than 1,000 cases related to disputed domain names since its arbitration system began last year. In a similar case, the organization ruled in favor of art-rockers Jethro Tull, while Sting lost his bid to obtain the rights to sting.com (hitsdailydouble, 7/28).
